Mending Broken Warp Strings

I am not very happy with this alpaca/silk mix for warp.  It's just not as strong as I hoped it would be. As far as tension, the warp is relatively loose, and I'm being very gentle beating the weft lines in -- so much so that the circles in the pattern are becoming elongated.  Perhaps I'll have to start beating this by hand -- like a tapestry?

The photo above shows the T-pins in place to hold a repair warp thread.  I'm getting very good at it by now!   On the last pass (not shown here) through the pattern repeat, I broke 3 strings.  I finally removed 2 of the rods in the angel wings at the back.  That seems to be helping now.  2 remain ...

Even though I'm babying it, still the warp strings pull apart ... one at a time. Usually it's down by the weaving.  I can see it happening before it completely breaks.  I guess that's a plus in that I can follow it back so I know what reed slot and heddle needs to be re-threaded.

This last round I had to stop 3 times to fix broken warp strings. I'm getting smart about it now.

I use a chip clip to mark my place in the treadle pattern beads -- Sucks to lose my place in that series!  [Been there; Done that!]  It's a 72-step treadle pattern, and the mere action of moving the beater forward to work on the heddles can disturb the separation in the beads that usually marks my place in the sequence. 

I use another chip clip to mark the heddle to be re-threaded.  That makes it so much easier to see once I move to the back of the loom.  And it helps to keep the other heddles out of the way.

I've also learned that I can't weave after work. I need to be fresh enough to take on fixing a broken warp string -- and I need natural light to see.  The task lamp isn't enough for that operation after dark.   Sometimes, I'll even use one of those headlamps when I have to get into the guts of the machine to re-run a repair warp thread.

I have so many little canisters hanging off the back of the loom now ...  I thought I had plenty, but then I had to get some more at Hobby Lobby the other day.  It will take extra time to unwind these strings when I need to advance the warp. 

I'm only about half-way through the first scarf.  I may not even attempt the second one. 

I'm still not quite ready to cut it off and start over though.  At what point will I be so frustrated and disgusted that I just cut the line and move on to some other project?